Pulse Kanji
by Jason Hes
Summary: A cross-over between "Dark Water" and "Pulse" about four cousins who, after witnessing one of their cousins fall into a strange coma and later disappear, go in search of answers as to what is causing the world's population and their cousin to disappear...
1. Chapter 1

**KaNgI**

PROLOGUE

Yoda 440: "Wassup, how u?"

LegeFlyer: "A bit freaked out and u?"

Yoda440: "Why the hell u freaked out? U got anada stalker :) lol"

LegeFlyer: "Stoppit! This isn't funny... I'm serious... I'm v. worried..."

Yoda440: "Ok ok, tell Yoda..."

LegeFlyer: "I went sumwher yesterday"

Yoda440: "Sumwhere?? Damn grrl, u need to get real!"

LegeFlyer: " Shuddup! I am real... but what's happening to me shouldn't be real..."

Yoda440: "Seriously. WTF is up?"

LegeFlyer: "I don't know 4sure… I don't wanna no It was fuckin' freaky..."

Yoda440: "And?"

LegeFlyer: "they were so fucked up... people dying and shit... but in a bad way... and... The noise"

Yoda440: "U really aren't makin' no sense...go on"

LegeFlyer: "It felt like I was there... like I was the person killing all these people..."

Yoda440: "Shit. Now what?"

LegeFlyer: "I feel sick all ova... my head, my chest... my stomach... evrywher..."

Yoda440: "But it's just a bad cold u got 4rm someone, it's okay :)"

LegeFlyer: "I don't feel ok... I just... don't feel no more... but the pain..."

Yoda440: "Then get to a hospital. Quick."

LegeFlyer: "It's noise! It's with me now! I've got to se"

Yoda440: "Wat? Grrl, you have to se? What's that mean?"

LegeFlyer: "..."

Yoda440: "?Hello?"

LegeFlyer: "..."

Yoda440: "Bitch, c'mon!"

LegeFlyer: "I hungry..."

Yoda440: "Uh... rite..."

LegeFlyer: "I eat now..."

Yoda440: "Fuck grrl, go get sumthng to eat and get back here... I need help with my Algebra..."

LegeFlyer: "Here I stand, lookin' preety... in the dust that was a city..."

Yoda440: "Huh? Make some sense..."

Yoda440: "Hello? You eating?... Hurry, it's almost 1am!"

Yoda440: "Yo. Sorry about the whole bitch thing... u back yet?"

Yoda440: "Hey! Atleast log off if ur gone! Internet costs!"

Yoad440: "Look. If I gotta cum round to ur place and shut the damn peice of shit off myself I would put I'm starting to get a headache from all of this, ok? So please, its been fifteen minutes since you've replied. Log Of!"

LegeFlyer: "Yum."

Yoda440: "At last! A reply!"

LegeFlyer: "Yum."

LEGEFLYER HAS LOGGED OFF

No-one knows exactly where it came from.

No-one knows what It was before it became the dawn of the Apocalypse. It ate off people's fear in real life, and somehow managed to find it's way into our cyberspace, contaminating it… seeping into chat rooms and websites, and with every message one would send, It would eat away at that person, mentally and physically. But It simply couldn't consume over the internet. It needed strength from there.

No-one knows how it got there, or what it would do. But the minute professionals found out- they were dead before word could be let out.

What once fed us information and knowledge, now fed on us.

The Apocalypse would start and end in exactly one month.

**CHAPTER ONE: 01**

_"It's late, get some rest... fire in the hole! fire in the... wow, you've gone bigger... get out of the-"_

"Wait! Go back one!"

"_I've heard a lot, but now I can see it's all true! We're gonna have fun tonight!"_

"And so are we!" laughed Dimitri, slapping his cousin Damien on the back, breaking into fits of laughter, "And so are we Babe!"

Damien laughed weakly and stared at his cousin, who eagerly leaned closer to the ancient radio, listening to the 'oohs' and 'aahs' and the occassional giggle that came through.

"Dimitri, you need to get more, you know that?"

Dimitri, who intensely listened to the errotic play over the radio, slowly turned over to his cousin and sighed, "And how would you know that?"

Damien pretended to think, "Umm, well, let's see. You're listening to Mrs Foster and Mr Robertson do each other."

"May I just say, you're doing the same thing?"

Damien stood up and raised his hands, "Oh no I'm not! Not as much as you are anyway!"

_"Turn over Courtney, that's it Big Girl, onto your back!"_

Dimitri gasped in excitement, as he grabbed the radio, "I... I think their doing it dog- style!"

"Oh that's repulsive!" shrieked a girl's gentle voice from inside the room next to Damien's. Damien and Dimitri both looked in the direction of Damien's open door.

Damien looked back at his cousin and frowned, "So... Electra distracted you from your perverted pleasure?"

Dimitri laughed and switched off the radio and began to walk out of Damien's room, with Damien following him, "Please Damien, when did you use big words?"

Electra stared intently at the screen in front of her. Having her own laptop, that she had connected to the internet was the envy of almost every girl she knew, which was, practically, from the whole school.

There was a knock at the door and in walked Damien and Dimitri. Electra shrieked again in shock, "Don't you know that you cannot barge in?"

She quickly jumped up from her chair and covered the laptop's screen with her back.

"Uh... sorry Elle," began Damien, who smiled slyly as he began to walk towards her.

"What are you doing Elle?" asked Dimitri, who copied Damien by walking over towards her too. Something was going on, as Electra tried to hide the laptop's face from them.

"Nothing! Must there always be a reason?"

"Oh, no, not always," said Damien slyly, and with one move, grabbed Electra's slender body and threw her at Dimitri, who in turn, held her in a tight grip.

"No! Stop! Damien, leave the laptop! I'll call mother!"

"Mom and Dad are in Paris, you think they care?" he answered her, as he looked at the screen, and slowly turned away from it, disgusted at what he had seen.

He looked at Electra, disgusted and sick, "Where did you get that from?"

Electra groaned and added, struggling out of Dimitri's strong grip, "It was from a loser on some chat room I go to... don't tell mom and dad!"

"What is it?" Dimitri asked, his smile fading, letting go of the struggling Electra and walking over to Damien. He looked down at the lighted screen and giggled, "It wasn't the size I thought you went for Elle!"

Damien also giggled at that comment, then tried to keep a straight face.

Electra clicked her tongue, "Oh, whatever! I asked him to send me a picture of himself... he asked me of what part of his body, I just wrote, 'your head.' "

The three of them stared at the miniscle sized penis on the laptop's screen, bedded with a garden of thick black pubic hair.

Electra slowly bent over towards the laptop, and pressed the 'delete' button, removing the horrid and embarrassing photo from the laptop's memory.

"I never want to go onto _that_ site again..." sighed Electra, as she closed the laptop screen and pulled out the internet cable. The two boys sat on the bed, Dimitri's heavily gelled spiked-up hair in a way reflecting the light from the mini- chandelier in the centre of Electra's ceiling.

Electa looked at Dimitri for a second, then glanced at her poster of Cristiano Ronaldo on her wardrobe door. Funnily enough, the two both looked identical. Damien on the other hand, looked like a modern rendition of the late James Dean, whereas Electra, was in a word, unique.

"So..." began Dimitri, still a little shocked after seeing the image on the laptop screen and tried to make conversation to take his mind off it, "What are the nearest clubs around here?"

"Unlike Greece, there's a law which doesn't allow people under 18 to go to clubs," said Electra, straight to the point.

"Well, there must be something on TV while I'm here," laughed Dimitri, now desperate to talk.

"Or at the cinema?" asked Damien, hopefully. Electra sighed, as if giving in to mental torture.

"Why not? I head that new horror, 'Mouth' has started?" Dimitri raised his eye-brows, looking for suggestions.

Electra smiled, "Well, I guess we could hire a movie or two, and invite Dylan and Michelle over."

"No!" yelled Damien, getting up, "not Michelle! Not that-"

"Just remember, Damien, we are family with 'that'!" shouted Electra, taking offence to his minor outburst.

"Why'd you hate her so much Damien?" Dimitri asked, looking up at his stubborn cousin, "I mean, she is pretty cool..."

"Please, that girl is so boring, and irritating! I don't like having relatives like her who just think they're the greatest!"

"Don't you think you're the greatest, Damien?" asked Electra mockingly and walked out her room, and into the TV room down the stairs.

Phrog: "So you wanna go out tonight?"

Lotus07: "I can't... really..."

Phrog: " crying why?"

Lotus07: "Watching a movie with my cousin's!"

Phrog: "Oh really? Kwl, how r they?"

Lotus07: "They're good thnx, why does every1 no who I'm rel8d 2 school?"

Phrog: "Uh... cos they're like the hottest and most popular ppl in Holy Trinity?!"

Lotus07: "LOL That's just gross."

Phrog: "I've herd they r! Look, I g2g, but we'll chat 2moro?"

Lotus07: "Fine, cool, :) luv u, bye!"

PHROG HAS LOGGED OFF

LOTUS07 HAS LOGGED OFF

Michelle knocked at the door, holding the pirated version of 'Mouth' in her hand.

She looked down at it, as she waited for someone to answer the door. 'Mouth'. What a stupid name for a horror, it sounded more like a porn movie than anything else. But, the grinding decaying teeth that made up the cover of the DVD box proved Michelle wrong. She hadn't seen it yet, but heard good reviews about it and was keen to see it.

Footsteps were heard as Damien's voice yelled out, "Coming!" and in an instant he opened the door, and the smile on his face disappeared very quickly when he saw it was Michelle in the porch.

"Uh, hi..." said Michelle, nervously, not wanting to say anything wrong.

"Uh... yea, c'mon in."

Slowly, Michelle walked past Damien without looking at him, and briskly walked into the lounge, where both Dylan and Electra were.

"Mich!" squealed Dylan in mock surprise and burst out laughing as the two of them hugged.

"Dill!" siad Michelle, and the two laughed at their stupidity.

As Michelle hugged Electra, she asked, "So how's Dimitri?"

Electra grinned, "He's staying with us for the rest of the year- I thought my mother told you at Anastasia's christening?"

"No!" said Michelle, genuinely surprised, and secretly bursting with joy inside. When she first laid eyes on him, back when he came from Greece to be an exchange student at Holy Trinity Private school, Michelle couldn't stop wishing that they somehow weren't related so that she could flirt with him. It was a horrid thought to be perving over your own cousin, but it was different- somewhere down the line.

"So... are we going to watch the movie or not?" called Damien from inside the kitchen.

Electra rolled her eyes, "Michelle, you two have got to sort out your problems!"

"Family feuds aren't nice Mich," said Dylan seriously.

"Look, I have no problem, it's your brother who has the problem!"

"What are you guys fighting about anyway?" asked Dylan, bored, but seemingly lost.

"It's a long story, but I'll say this-" began Michelle, only to be interrupted by the running footsteps, coming down the steps.

Michelle turned to see Dimitri, in all his glory as he gave her a toothy grin, "What's up Cousin?"

Michelle grinned as she threw her arms around him and "_kala_" she said.

At that minute, Damien, with a big bowl of freshly made, steaming yellow popcorn came from the kitchen and looked at where Michelle had put all her stuff, including the DVD.

"What's that movie?" he asked casually.

Michelle let go of Dimitri and walked over to the DVD and handed it to him, "Mouth."

"Really?" Dimitri asked, interested, "I've been wanting to see it- but it's not out on DVD, is it imported from somewhere?"

Michelle smiled warmly, "Not exactly, it's just a copy I bought the other day from the market at Chestnut Mall..."

"Pirated?" asked Damien, then added in a warning voice, "You could be arrested for this type of thing!"

"Oh, give it up Damien!" moaned Electra and snatched the DVD from his hands and walked over to the Plasma Screen TV in the TV room, "Let's just watch it!"

"I vouch for that!" said Dylan happily, as she too exited into the other room.

Dimitri began to walk out of the Lounge too, "See you guys in there!"

It was just Damien and Michelle. Slowly Damien ate the popcorn from the bowl, while Michelle stared at him nervously, then added quickly, "Look, I'm sorry, alright? I've apologized for happened a week ago! Please! It was an accident…"

Damien looked at her like an insect that could needed to be squashed under his foot, "No worries Michelle. But I'm worried that next time, you'll do something way worse..."

He left, going into the TV room, where shouts and calls for Michelle had started. But Michelle didn't want to watch the movie anymore, she felt ashamed, lost in a sea of guilt. But as the calls grew more urgent and irritable, Michelle took a deep breath and entered the large TV room, and began to watch the movie.


	2. Chapter 2

_**CHAPTER TWO: 02**_

'_Mouth__'__ was in a word, revolting._

_Dylan couldn__'__t help but offer to get drinks and extra packets of chips even though people had enough to feed a thousand men left over which sat on the table, and accumulated as Dylan insisted on bringing more._

_And, even when she was in the kitchen, she could hear the horrific and blood- curdling screams of naïve women, innocently lured into the killer__'__s house, only to have their teeth pulled out of their gums and their nipples cut off with a razor blade._

_Dylan didn__'__t know why she led herself into the trap. She hated horror movies, despised the genre and knew that her blood- thirsty cousins would have wanted to watch horror- but why something as grotesque as __'__Mouth__'__?_

_They were all never really into horror movies, until Electra managed to land herself as a co-star in a low budget horror that didn__'__t really last very long in cinema__'__s and had only received about twenty thousand in it__'__s first week it had opened. _

_Dylan would always laugh how Electra managed to keep her cool when she heard jealous and unpopular girls gloating that because Electra was in a crap movie, it didn__'__t really count at all. Electra just smiled politely, turned around to them and said, __"__You__'__re right girls, I mean you just have a lot of experience working in the before photo__'__s of a Diet Pill advert!__"_

_Till this day, Electra won__'__t agree that the horror she acted in, __'__The Night He Came Home__'__, was not a Box Office Flop. All she would say would be, __"__The world isn__'__t ready for real blood, guts and gore, and me hanging from a hook__…"_

_But, it seemed that __'__Mouth__'__ contradicted Electra__'__s comment, as it showed more guts, more gore than her low budget __'__masterpiece__'__._

"_Dylan? Hello? It__'__s over- you missed a crap ending!__"__ yelled Dimitri from the TV room, as Dylan quickly realized she had been standing in the kitchen for over half an hour._

_She briskly walked back into the TV room and sat down next to Electra, who had tears in her eyes. Dylan smiled, __"__What__'__s wrong, Elle?__"_

_Electra sniffed, __"__My agent, that__'__s what__'__s wrong!__"_

_Dimitri leaned towards her and said in interest, __"__So you think you can still hook me up with that Amber Hammer girl?__"_

_Electra frowned slightly, __"__Who? The one who played Daisy?__"_

_Dimitri grinned eagerly and rubbed his hands together, __"__Yip! That one__…__ the one who survived your movie__…"_

_Damien grinned, __"__You mean they actually showed that piece of crap overseas in Greece?__"_

_Electra mockingly glared at him, __"__Oh__…__ Hardy fucking Ha Damien, I__'__d like to see you try scream your lungs out, pretending you__'__re in agony while being suspended on some bungee cord!__"_

"_That whole hook thing looked fun to do Electra,__"__ said Michelle sincerely, __"__I know that Uncle Costa said that it was the best death in a movie he__'__s ever seen!__"_

"_He clearly hasn__'__t seen a high budgeted movie,__"__ said Damien with a giggle, Electra threw a pillow at him._

"_Enough about the movie- I wanna hear about Amber!__"__ exclaimed Dimitri, in a way, it seemed, becoming determined._

_Electra sighed wearily, __"__Look Dimi, no matter how hot you really are, and I mean that in an honest way, as like, all he girls still say it at Holy Trinity, Amber has a boyfriend__…__ and she__'__s a whore__…"_

_Michelle frowned, __"__That__'__s a little strong__…"_

_Electra casually looked at her, __"__How__'__d you think she got the big role?__"_

_The phone rang and rang, it__'__s shrill ring, until Electra managed to get off the couch and run towards the phone, __"__Hello?__"_

_The rest had moved into the living room now, and were all just lying around, Dimitri having a smoke, Damien talking to Dylan, Michelle on her cell phone- clearly, everyone was bored._

"_Yes__…__ she is here__…__ sure, I__'__ll get her for you. One moment please?__"_

_Electra walked into the living room, holding the portable phone in her hand. She walked over to Michelle, who looked up at her, __"__Someone for you Mich__…"__ said Electra and handed Michelle the phone._

"_Hello?__"_

"_Hey I must tell you__…"_

"You called me on Damien and Electra's house phone?" asked a startled Michelle, as she quickly opened the sliding door which opened onto the patio which led to their enormous garden, "How did you get their number?"

"_Phone book- look, there isn__'__t much time! I have so much to tell you__…"_

"Like what?" asked Michelle, starting to get irritated, "What could possibly be wrong now?"

"_Just__…"_

Dylan looked at Michelle who stood on the marble patio outside in the garden. A chilly breeze could be seen sweeping through the trees as they slowly shifted from side to side in the breeze.

"I wonder who she's speaking to?" thought Dylan allowed, making Electra and the two boys look at her.

""Probably no-one… who wants to tell a story?" said Dimitri, boredom starting to be seem in his handsome face, "Something like a baby-sitter one, when she is left alone and is hunted by some serial killer?"

Damien groaned, "Boring!"

Dimitri gave him a blank look, "Do you have any other suggestions?"

"I do!" Dylan piped up, suddenly wide awake, her eyes open with excitement, "It's not really a story… I got some text message on my phone the one night, three weeks ago. It was probably a silly virus thing, because a week later my cell was flooded with viruses, so I had to get a new phone… but this message, was quite weird… it was all in block letters, except for the very end of the message which went, 'do you want to be my friend, so I can eat?'"

"Well that's fucked up," said Electra.

Dimitri just smiled, "Dill, that was from me! I was so hungry when I went over to your house the one day, and we had a fight over our soccer teams and so you refused to feed me the whole day!"

Dylan looked at him, surprised, "That was you?"

Damien shook his head at Dylan in mock disgust, "You dirty hoe…"

Electra laughed and sat up, "Well, talking about phones, I remember just walking from school today after cheerleading practice, I saw some hobo on the side of the road, but he looked really sick…"

"So what did you do?" asked Dimitri, just trying to make conversation.

"Nothing, though I think I should have helped him… but he didn't look _that_ sick to me…"

Just then the sliding door opened and a gust of wind blew in, followed by Michelle, who shut the door quickly. She looked breathless as she breathed deeply.

"Sorry…" she said, "It was great, but I have to go… it was Uncle Stavros on the phone…"

"Really?" said Electra, surprised, ""Didn't sound like him…"

"Well, he did have that operation," said Dylan in a 'matter-of-factly' tone.

"Oh, right…"

"So, he wants he to help close-up his office, for some reason he also wants to give me a month- old birthday present…" said Michelle, with a weak laugh.

"That's Stavros for you!" said Damien, smiling, not looking at Michelle.

"Uncle. Uncle Stavros!" lectured Dylan sarcastically.

"It was honestly great… I had a nice time…" said Michelle and gathered her things as she walked herself out the house. Minutes later, her car started, and the four heard her race down the road. Dimitri smiled and realized that he had e-mails to send to his anxious family in Greece, as well as his friend, and excused himself as he left the room.

"Do you want to sleep over tonight Dylan?" asked Electra hopefully. It was rare of Dylan actually wanting to sleep out anywhere as she enjoyed her own home to much.

Dylan smiled, "Sure, okay, but I'm not sharing a bedroom with _you_ again Electra!"

Electra put on her shocked face, "Why's that?"

"Well, you were online constantly and I couldn't go to sleep because of that!"

"Fine, sleep in one of the guest bedrooms then, Dylan… my sensitive sleeping cousin!" Electra laughed, and so did Dylan. The two looked up at Damien.

"Well, tonight went fine…" said Dylan uneasily, and Damien smiled.

"Don't worry… we've sorted it all out!"

Electra breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh well thank goodness!"

It was dawn when the three eventually decided to go to their rooms. Electra and Dylan cleaned up the TV room of all the chips and drinks, whereas Damien went to turn on the alarm. When he walked past Dimitri's room though, Dimitri still had his light on.

"Get to bed, you moron!" yelled Damien funnily as he himself went into his room and shut the door.

PigJuice: "Wher is every1? Chatrooms r normally crowded at this time!"

Butterfly- K: "Hey! About ten of us r still here! Dumbass!"

PigJuice: "but ther r usually 18 of us… r they doin something more important than this??"

BEAUTIFULLL: "LOL… get the hint Piggy!"

FriedUp: "I'm tired, ur all boring! G2g, check u all l8r…

Mega23: "Wat's up with that FriedUp? Ur normally on 4eva!"

FriedUp: "Just a minor headache ur all giving me J"

JASMYN: "Ok grrl, get better! Mwah!"

DamnMad: "Whats up with people like D324?? I mean, come on! He hasn't said anything for a couple of minutes now! Hello??"

D324: "Still here…"

BEAUTIFULLL: " Me too…"

FriedUp: "Flip! I need that thing for my head! Is it flu?"

PigJuice: "Dunno."

D324: "Yum."

Yumiko stared out her bedroom window, lazing about on the crisp winter afternoon. 

She had finished her homework, and wasn't allowed to go out, so there wasn't really much else to do. 

In the room next door to hers, she heard her mother moan in her sleep. At least Yumiko thought her mother was asleep. She hadn't seen much of her mother in a number of days. She always woke up after Yumiko went to school, and was always asleep again when Yumiko came back from school in the afternoon. To be quite honest, Yumiko blamed her unborn sibling for her mother's strange sleeping pattern. In that room, Yumiko's mother slept for two. Yumiko sighed and stretched her arms gently. She looked at the small old computer that lay in the corner of her small room. It hadn't been turned on for a number of years, and dirt and rust seemed to have taken their toll on the poor junk heap of a computer that it was.

" _Yumiko!__"_

A shout from down below brought Yumiko out of her sleepy mood and put her in a careful and cautious mood, as she heard the muffled voice of her drunken father from downstairs.

" _Yumiko- san! Your father wants you now__…"_

Taking a deep breath, Yumiko walked to her closed door, opened it and yelled, "Mother is trying to sleep! Keep it down!"

"_I don__'__t give a fuck! Get your arse down here!__"___yelled her father, giving a large belch from his mouth.

Yumiko sighed miserably as she dragged her feet down the steps towards her father who was probably lying drunk in front of a blaring television set.

Electra tore off her top and practically walked out of her designer jeans as she slowly laid herself into her bed, pulling the covers over her shoulders and stuck two small silver earphones into her ears and allowed herself to be rocked to sleep by the music from her iPod Nano. Her cell phone lazily leaned against her pillow and slowly began to vibrate, just as Electra started feeling the weight of sleep. She opened her heavy eyelids and reached for her vibrating and irritating cell phone.

She peered at the glowing screen of her cell phone.

"_**1 Message Received**__**"**_

At four in the morning? Whoever had sent it was a prat to disturb Electra's sleep. Slowly she thumped the key which allowed her to open the message and groaned in aggravation at what she saw.

"_**000000000000000000000000000000231000000000000000000000000doyouwanttobemyfriend--?- so I can eat/?**__**"**_

"Oh for fuck's sake!" murmured Electra as she remembered the conversation she had with Dylan and Dimitri and Damien, when Dimitri confessed to sending the "prank message" which wasn't even a prank to start out with- but this was pushing it.

Irritated, Electra shoved her phone onto her pillow and resumed listening to Madonna, making a mental note to blast Dimitri tomorrow. 


	3. Chapter 3

_**CHAPTER 3: 03**_

"_And in other news__…__ last night, an estimated three hundred thousand cell phone users received a text message from a private number__…__ though it has been thought to be what has been labeled a __"__Rough Virus__"__, people working at the cell phone companies think it is just another hoax... the messages came with one minute movie clips of a disturbing nature__…__ children being beaten to death and men gettinig tortured were only two of the horrific examples of this__…__"_

Electra sipped her usual Latte' in confusion at the television screen as the reporter, with a third rate hair style and cheap Gucci lip gloss read the story. Three hundred thousand cell phones received the message… it was crazy. Electra had stopped listening after the total amount of people who had received the message she was so shocked. Had Dimitri gone insane with his air- time?

"Morning!" shouted Dimitri as he jumped from the last stair, quickly making sure both his uniform and his hair were in perfect condition for school that day.

"You were certainly busy last night…" came Electra's cold reply, as he sidled next to her, looking at the TV screen.

Dimitri gave a confused laugh, "Excuse me?"

"It was bad enough sending the message to me- but three thousand other people? Are you crazy?" Electra stood up and glared at him.

"I don't know what you mean…" said Dimitri.

"Well then," said Electra sarcastically, shoving her cell phone into his hands, "Does this refresh your memory?"

Dimitri gave a nervous laugh and gave the phone back to her, "That's not me."

"It so is you!"

"It can't be… I don't even have a cell phone, well, not since last week…"

Electra narrowed her eyes, "Bullshit."

"It's not! Honestly! It got some type of virus so I had to throw it out… wanna check the trash?"

Electra straightened her back, "No. Just… no."

"So… you do understand that it wasn't me… I've been using pay-phones…"

Electra sighed miserably and looked at the stairs and the rooms above them, "Where's Damien and Dylan… we'll be late for assembly today!"

"So you got the message too Dylan?" asked the nervous looking Jasmin Walsh, a matric prefect who was known for always being on her cell phone, "I mean, it's like everyone did…"

"I got it a couple of months back… but it was from Dimitri, hey- where are the teachers?" asked Dylan, trying to change the subject before Jasmin and any other eavesdroppers began to swoon over Dimitri.

"They're in a quick staff meeting, they should be done in ten minutes…"

_My word_, thought Dylan, sighing in grief, thinking back on how she looked at the type on the digital alarm clock in one of the extra guest rooms in Electra and Damien's house and realized she'd be late for the first time for school- ever_, I even skipped out on fucking breakfast!_

"Hey," came a voice from behind her, and a medium sized boy of seventeen sat next to Dylan.

"Hey Shawn," said a tired Dylan.

"So Dylan… the five cent question… Did you get the message too?" he asked in bitter humour, yet Dylan found it reasonably funny.

"Actually…" she was about to bring up the whole 'getting the message from Dimitri months back', but thought it unnecessary and politely added, "No."

A heavy drizzle threw itself against the large windows of the huge, ancient hall, and many students decided to up- and- leave the hall, without even the prefects' permission. Organized chaos is what some would call it.

"You're probably the only one who didn't… it was so weird, and the clip it came with was worse!"

Dylan frowned, "Clip?"

She remembered Electra talking about the message on their way into the hall, but she didn't recall her mentioning a clip that came with the message.

"Yeah… it was freaky… it was of some guy with a sack on his head… he kept trying to pull it off, but every time he almost did, the clip started over…"

"That is _sick_…" exclaimed Jasmin who, while Dylan and Shawn spoke, was trying with the help of the other prefects, to keep the other students from going outside into the pouring rain.

"Did you also get it?" asked Shawn, as Jasmin sighed and sat down next to them.

"No… but I got another one… it's too weird for words, take a look."

Jasmin stuck her hand into her navy blue blazer pocket and pulled out a bubblegum coloured cell phone with a large screen, she punched in her code, and then the clip came up and she handed the phone to Dylan as the clip began, "I wanted to delete it… but I thought maybe someone could tell me what it meant…"

A tall woman, with long hair slowly walked backwards and in some sort of slow motion, bent backwards, so much that her whole body almost began to twist into some sort of doughnut. Suddenly, her face could be seen. It was pale, and her eyes had no pupils, but instead a liquid blackness covered her bulging eyes. Her face came closer to the screen, just as the clip finished. The cell phone screen returned to normal once again. 

Dylan felt a shiver run down her back as Jasmin took the cell phone back and with a worried look asked, "What do you think she was looking at?"

Dylan hesitated for a moment, then gazed into Jasmin's anxious eyes and said, "Us…"

Shawn laughed, "What?"

"She was looking… at us?" repeated Jasmin, unconvinced.

Dylan tried to shrug off the shivers from running their horrid course down her spine and so she stood up and quickly walked towards where Electra was sitting, with Dimitri, Damien and a few other students who were labelled the 'cool guys'. 

"By the way Dill, you so must chat to myself and Leolynn in the chat room- I'm Jasmyn and she is Beautiful, with three L's."

Dylan gave a wan smile and said, "Uh, sure thing…"

Electra looked up with a smile on her face, at Dylan as she walked towards the group, "Hey… can you believe that Justin and Erika both got the same type of message that I did? I guess I shouldn't act too surprised, I mean, over three thousand people received the same message at the same time as me last night."

"But you didn't get a clip… did you?" asked Dylan, still quite unable to shrug off the shivers. 

"Nope… I don't have space for that type of thing, which reminds me that I do need a new cell phone after all!"

"What were the clips like?" asked Dimitri, trying to sound casual about the matter, but it was hard to when everyone couldn't get it off their minds.

"I watched one… it was so creepy, of some woman doing a summersault in a way… but her eyes were so black and so…"

"Dead?" came a girl's voice from behind Dylan and she turned around to face her. Dylan gasped at what she saw.

It was Michelle, but this Michelle was pale and had black bags under her eyes and stood shivering probably from the rain. Her hair was thick with grease and her blazer shoulders covered with tiny specs of dandruff. Dylan couldn't help herself from cringing at what she saw.

"Mi… Michelle?" said Electra, standing up and walking towards the shaking girl, "are you alright?"

"What's wrong with you?" asked Damien, giving her a suspicious side- glance.

"Tired… weak…" Michelle's knees buckled and gave in, as she fell to the floor. Dimitri and Damien quickly rushed towards the girl's body and lifted her up, noticed many people were staring at them and the two, holding the crippled Michelle between them, quickly walked into the hall lobby and went up the dirty and dark staircase which led to the upper seats which were, for the time being, isolated. Electra and Dylan quickly followed, as more and more students began to practically barge their way out of the historical hall, though the majority still decided to stay behind in case the teachers did show up.

As Dylan and Electra eventually finished the walk up the staircase, the two noticed that the three were not sitting in the upper seats, but rather in the small museum that was embedded in the left wing of the hall. Holy Trinity had been around for over a century, so the staff felt it only fit to create a museum where outsiders and students of the school alike could visit, but it rarely was. It was like a long corridor which ran from the back of the hall where the upper seats were, to the front of the large stage, where it ended. 

"Yumiko, how was your Friday night?" teased Chiaki as the two walked down the small road towards the community college, "pick up any guys?"

"If you can call me picking up my drunk father from lying in a pile of his own puke, then yes I did…"

Chiaki smiled, thinking Yumiko said a joke, then stopped smiling after she saw a tear running down her cheek, "Yumiko…"

"No, I'm fine…" hesitated Yumiko, wiping the large bulb of a tear from her face, "I'll get over it I'm sure…"

Chiaki gave a hollow smile and put her arm around her friend's shoulders, "It will be okay…"

Yumiko scoffed a laugh and rolled her eyes, "How?"

Chiaki smiled fully this time and said, "You'll see…"

Dylan had been in the 'grand' museum only once, and that was when she had been enrolled into Holy Trinity. She felt like she needed to learn some of it's history before actually becoming part of it. But that was four years ago. Now the museum was covered with glass exhibits and large oil paintings and photographs, as well as emblems and shields and for some reason, guns that were used by the past students in the wars.

Damien, Dimitri and Michelle were sitting in the middle of the museum, Michelle's back pressed against one of the windows which looked into the hall.

They could hear threats coming from the prefects below that if anymore students left the building, they would receive a detention straight away.

"Michelle… it's okay, what's wrong?" asked Damien in a surprisingly soothing voice which neither of them expected from him after the big fight the two of them had.

"It's… all wrong… sooner or later…"

"We don't understand…" said Dimitri, his fists clenched.

Michelle breathed heavily, "I… got a message… five days ago… at least it's over soon…"

"Michelle stop it!" yelled Electra, who walked quickly towards her cousin in pain, "You'd swear it was the end of the fucking world!"

Michelle sat up, trying hard to breathe, but it came out in slow dry puffs, "Don't go in… take my…"

Michelle suddenly slumped over onto Damien's chest, and Dylan screamed in panic. Damien pulled Michelle off him and shook her, but it was as if she had breathed her last. Dimitri stood up quickly and at a full speed, ran past the two shocked girls and down the spiral staircase. It was only seconds later that the three from inside the museum heard Dimitri's screams, "Help! Someone is dying up in the library… don't just look at me! Call an ambulance!"

Electra fumbled in her blazer pocket and pulled out her cell phone and tried dialling as quickly as she could, but the stress and shock weighed upon her fingers as she tried over and over again to call 911. 

"Michelle! Stay with us! Please!" yelled Damien, as he held her tight in his arms, as Mister Bait, the English teacher, followed by ten prefects and students entered the narrow museum, to see what all the commotion was all about. Dylan crept next to a glass exhibit and burst into worried tears as the rain still beat down onto the window panes, not as strong as before, yet still going…

Michelle lay on the hospital bed, cords and pipes stuck to her, just like the needles in her arms. The rain outside started to slow down, just like the slow beat of Michelle's heat rate, as four anxious students waited outside in the waiting room.

"She is in a deep sleep Doctor Crane," said one of the nurses as she handed him a file with Michelle's name on it.

"You didn't need to tell _me_ that…" sighed the irritable doctor, as he realized he now had to face four bratty private school students and a weeping mother outside in the waiting room… the day wasn't getting much better.

Electra noticed the doctor walk in from Michelle's room and slowly bit her lip in worry. The doctor himself wasn't such a bad looking man. Thick hair nicely combed parted on the side, a wry look on his face… Electra thought of him to be quite handsome.

As he came closer, Michelle's mother, Damien and Dimitri stood up at once, eyeing the doctor.

The doctor took a deep breathe and started on his results, "Michelle is in a coma…"

Her mother burst into tears and the students seemed to look in opposite directions except for the doctor's, "But we doubt that she will stay in that state for much longer… she is dehydrated and has taken on the symptoms for pneumonia for some reason…"

"Do you know what it is?" asked the weeping mother, "What is the sickness Michelle as?"

"I've never seen a case like her's before… I doubt anyone has, it is a strange case. The test results show that she lost a great amount of energy in just a couple of hours and her intestines…"

Silence.

"What about them?" asked Michelle's mother, beginning to feel horrified.

The doctor took a deep breathe, "She is a seventeen year old girl, yet her intestines show her to be… at least seventy- four…"

There was multiple gasps, as Michelle's mother cried even louder, and on of the students came towards the doctor, fuming, "Are you sure? It's fucking impossible!"

"Dimitri!" moaned the girl who looked as if she was too was on the verge of a breakdown, like the patient's mother, "please… he knows what he is talking about…"

"Electra is right," said the other girl student soothingly, and laid a hand on Dimitri's shoulder, "We should just pray she gets better… and that they know what to do and what she has caught…"

Michelle's mother was allowed to stay with Michelle until visiting hours were over, where as the four students were told to go back to school.

Walking through the abandoned corridors of the hospital, Electra couldn't shake off the feeling that something was watching her, and repeatedly turned around to see if someone was. But, as she had learnt the countless times she had looked back, it was only a nurse behind them in the distance.

Damien and Dimitri walked on ahead, murmuring softly to one another, things Electra couldn't hear. She couldn't even hear what Dylan was saying, who was right next to her, but that was purely selective hearing. "Imagine what would happen..." Dylan's morbid voice trailed away from Electra's seemingly deaf ears. 

"Somebody has to stop the leaking in this fucking place," moaned Dimitri, running a hand through his spiked hair.

Dylan frowned, "What leaking Dimitri?"

"It's dripping, it's so irritating- and this is a private hospital!"

"Must be a tap," said Electra, uninterested. She peered through all the rooms that had open doors


	4. Chapter 4

_**CHAPTER 4: 04**_

_"Doctor Cane, please report to front desk immediately... Doctor Cane!"_

The shrill voice ran through the hospital, and even managed to sneak into the odd confines of Doctor Cane's office. 

Cane woke up and immediately looked at his Rolex wrist watch which had been fastened to his wrist.

**2.45a.m**

Doctor Cane sighed and rubbed his tired eyes, trying to remember why he hadn't left yet. And then he remembered. Max Gerkins, the boy who came in for a broken arm had fallen into a strange and definitely unexpected coma. Doctor Cane was baffled, as well as everyone else in Max's room, but thinking about it now, it could have been stress- induced.

"Doctor Cane!" shrieked a voice from outside his office. It sounded scared, impatient and urgent. The typical voice of Nurse Dee. 

Quickly, Doctor Cane got up from the black leather couch in his neat and spacious office and briskly walked over to the door, still feeling groggy after falling asleep on the couch for two hours.

Opening the door, Cane immediately knew something was wrong. Not only was the anxious and horrified look on Nurse Dee's strict face a sign, but also the cries and calls from outside the office.

She glared at him, looking impatient all of a sudden, "We've been calling for fifteen minutes! Where have you been, we thought you went home!"

"Well, in my office apparently!" said Cane rather irritably, much to his surprise, but he could never take criticisms from people, especially nurses such as Dee.

"You need to come with me quickly... we don't know what it is..." Dee began to walk into the busy corridor of other nurses, doctors and staff, and Cane began to follow her, "It's absolutely _insane_!"

"What?" scoffed Cane, and pushed past a few nurses who were yelling to each other. Cane frowned at the excitement, though what he really was thinking about was what Dee was referring to as _insane_.

"What is going on?" he asked to her back, but his voice was downed out in the waves of cries and shouts made from people in the corridor, "My word! Won't this noise wake the patients? They need their rest!"

Dee turned around sharply to face him and sighed, "Well, they probably didn't need all that rest- they are all in gone..."

"_Comatose?_"

"Yes mother... comatose."

"_When did this... happen?_"

"At school this morning, the teachers were in this long meeting and Michelle came into the hall practically looking like the plague!"

"_How's Freda coping?_"

"I have no idea... We left her at the hospital this morning..."

"_Poor Freda... she's so close to her daughter... anyway, I must go, we're going to watch 'Les Miserables' at a theatre in thirty... speak later?"_

Electra sighed and gave a wan smile, "Yes, of course... and enjoy it."

Her mother said goodbye and quickly put down the phone, leaving Electra to listen to the dial tone on the phone. Electra groaned and put down the phone. She was inside the kitchen, with a Physics book open in front of her on the kitchen table, along with a bottle of Fanta and a few sleeping pills. unfortunately, they weren't working, so Electra had pulled out her Business Economics book and began reading, hoping that would put her to sleep.

Everyone else was asleep, except for her. She couldn't, no matter how hard she tried, get herself to sleep. All she could picture with her eyes closed were the images of Michelle laying in the hospital bed, as well as the long white corridor and the feeling that she was being watched. 

Strangely enough, ever since she left Michelle, she felt watched. Even now in the kitchen, with large windows bare from curtains that overlooked the garden patio and the big swimming pool. Electra looked around to see the garden patio, leaves blowing off it because of the terrible wind that had picked up suddenly.

_Is someone watching me?_ Electra asked herself, and her breathing became deeper and she could feel chills running up her spine like electricity, _Is someone in my garden? In my pool? Are they out there? Is something out there?_

_It lay inside the pool, in the shadows__…__ it had taken the form, it was ready, at last. It gazed at the girl inside the kitchen and felt her fear__…__ but it wasn__'__t a large fear- not yet__…_

"Guys! Come here!"

Electra looked up suddenly, jumping from the shock of Dimitri's loud voice. It sounded raspy and tired though. Electra thought he had gone to bed long ago, with Damien, and was in a way relieved to hear she wasn't the only person still awake in their large house.

"_Guys!_" shrieked Dimitri, he sounded scared and upset. Electra got up from the chair she was seated in and ran at a full speed towards the stairs, which lead to the corridor where their bedrooms were.

"What's wrong?" she called as she made it up the stairs and saw Damien go into Dimitri's room.

She slowly stopped running and briskly walked into Dimitri's room, where she saw Dimitri, huddled up in a bed blanket on the bedroom floor, his laptop right next to him. His eyes were wild, as he seemed to be leaning away from the laptop. He was sweating extensively, and he rasped, "_Look..._"

"What is it?" Damien asked groggily, and stared at the pale computer screen, it's screen's backlight shining on the bedroom carpet.

At first, Electra didn't know what she was really supposed to be looking at, until her eyes adjusted and almost passed out from shock- and exhaustion.

"I... I was in a chat room... and I was talking to some guy named 'Yoda440'... he told me about his mother and brother looking like the living dead and they both disappeared an hour later... he then e-mailed me this clip... from a site..."

Dimitri's voice trailed off, but it didn't matter, he didn't need to say anything. The clip showed it all.

It was a girl, Electra's age, maybe older, and she was strapped to something... it looked like a bed at first. Then some type of strange audio came through sounding like a heavy moan. There was a flash, and moments later, the girl was getting tortured and beaten in such a way, Electra had to look away, it was getting out of control. Then, the clip had ended.

"Who the _fuck_ do you socialize with on these fucked up sites?" yelled Damien and Dimitri looked up at him, his eyes bulging, "I thought he was fucked up too... but he told me something about it being on his phone..."

"It... it seems that a lot of people have been getting these... clips," said Electra and sunk to the floor, shocked at what she had seen, "I mean, that prefect Jasmin received one of some woman doing a back-fucking-flip... Shawn Richards... he got one of some guy with a sack on his head..."

"Electra... do you know..." started Dimitri, but Electra cut him off.

"Then, later on today, when we came back from the hospital, Geoff Palmer shows me one of a baby- yes, a _baby_, getting thrown into a bath or something, Mister Greyhorne tells us his kid got one too... of a girl cutting her wrists!"

"Calm down... they're all a bunch of hoaxes..." said Damien, using the same calm tone he did with Michelle that afternoon, "I heard on the news that they're all pranks, and should be deleted and forgotten at once..."

"You cannot forget _that_..." exclaimed Dimitri silently, and as Electra was about to voice her agreement, the computer made an onomatopoeic noise, like a 'ping', notifying Dimitri that someone had logged into the chat room.

"It's probably that sicko!" yelled Electra, as her shock soon became rage, "I wanna talk to him!"

There was a pause as Dimitri deleted the disturbing torture clip and looked to see who had logged on. There was an even longer silence, as tension began to rise.

Damien leaned towards the screen, blocking Electra from he view of the screen, finally muttering, "Fucker... what the _fuck_?"

Dimitri started mumbling to Damien, and Electra only picked up words like, "Can't" and "How?"

Fuming now, that they were keeping her out of what was going on, and now only feeling the sleeping pills kicking in, Electra cried, "It's him isn't it! It's that sicko! I wanna speak to him!"

She pushed Damien aside from the screen, trying to see it, when it felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. She fell back, her eyes wide, her shivering hands clasping her gaping mouth. It was now _her_ turn to mumble incomprehensible words, "No... _no..._ but..."

All three sat around the laptop in a horrid silence, as the tension in the bedroom's air turned to fear as the three looked at pale screen and what it had to say.

MICHELLE HAS LOGGED ON

No-one dared say anything as Michelle's icon glared at them on the screen. A soft buzz coming from the computer was the only noise that seemed to erupt the shocked silence.

Suddenly, Electra, quivering from both disturbance and sudden fatigue bent over towards the screen and slowly typed in a sentence. It seemed forever before it came on the screen, whereas, in reality, it was only thirty seconds.

D-MAN: Who r u…

MICHELLE: He

"What?" Damien gasped, as the three stared at the strange answer in shock, "He? What the hell does that mean?"

MICHELLE: Hel

MICHELLE: Hel

MICHELLE: Help

MICHELLE: Help

MICHELLE: Help 

MICHELLE: Help 

MICHELLE: Help 

MICHELLE: Help 

MICHELLE: Help 

"What is she? How can she be doing this?" shrieked Electra, standing up suddenly and running out of the room, Damien followed his sister, whereas Dimitri stayed on the floor, mouth open, unable to believe what was going on before his eyes.

Electra ran down the flight of steps and ran into the large kitchen, switching the lights on as she ran in.

"Electra! What are you doing? Electra!" shouted Damien, as Electra grabbed the phone from the table and punched in a number. Her eyes were a wild red, as large tears streamed down her face.

The phone rang and rang, until suddenly, someone from the hospital picked up, "Hello? This is El-"

Electra's shaky voice was cut off by muffled crying on the other end.

"Are… are you alright? Hello!" shouted Electra, irritation rising.

There was an ill silence, then a shrill voice on the other end screamed, making Electra pull her ear away from the phone.

"What's going on?" asked Damien frantically, as Electra slowly put the phone back to her ear.

"Hello?" she whispered, a lump in her throat causing her voice to clog up, "Is anyone there?"

And then, to top all the horror and confusion off, the voice whispered, "help…"

Electra screamed in panic and threw the phone onto the marble floor, the phone shattered into hundreds of pieces.

Damien, obviously more confused than shocked at what Electra did, walked over to her and grabbed her by the shoulders, "what happened?" he asked her, his voice rasping.

"I don't… I don't know…" she said, and exhaustion look over her body, making it limp.

Yumiko entered her mother's room, bringing in with her some new sheets to put onto the Tatami mat. Her father, in all his drunkerd glory, had gone out since six o' clock in the evening, and hadn't come back. It was now nine o' clock the next day, and Yumiko, feeling Influenza on it's way, decided to stay at home, just in case.

Suddenly, from the mat rose a dark figure, naked in the morning air. It was the figure of a man, who had his back towards Yumiko. He stretched and turned around, saw Yumiko and quickly put his hands over his large penis.

"Mother!" yelled Yumiko in disbelief, throwing the clothes to one side of the room, diving towards her mother, who for the first time in a month it seemed, woke up and sat up in bed.

"_Konbanwa_…" said her mother slowly, her breath reeking of sake'. The naked man in the room quickly began putting on clothes as Yumiko shook her mother, "Get a grip mother! It's nine in the morning!"

"What…?" said her mother, looking around her room, "it is?"

Yumiko sighed angrily and looked at the man who now had his jeans on, "And you?"

The man stopped, and looked at Yumiko, with an arrogant look in his eyes and muttered, "I don't need to answer to you… little…"

Yumiko stared at the man, wanting to beat him, to kill him even, but she couldn't. She was in too much shock. And the influenza only made matters worse for her.

"Yumiko… meet Mitsuho Izu…"

"I don't care who he is!" yelled Yumiko suddenly, and grabbed her mother's shoulders, "I just want to know what the hell he is doing in this house! In your room!"

Mizuho turned to Yumiko suddenly, and smiled, "I'm a teacher… your mother was giving me an oral mark…"

"Fuck you!" shrieked Yumiko, and slapped the arrogant man across the face suddenly, shocking even herself.

"Yumiko! Your father will hear you!" shouted her mother suddenly, in a deep husky drunk voice, "And we _don__'__t_ want that…"

Yumiko sat down on the wooden floor, quivering slightly, "he has gone out…"

Her mother's face seemed to be more alive than anything else in the room, including the erect penis that Mizuho had difficulty with putting into his tight jeans.

"Yumiko," began her mother, "I am pregnant with your father's child… I won't make the same mistake by staying with that _man _and ruining my baby's life… like I did with you…"

Yumiko suddenly felt at ease, and sighed, a sigh of relief though. Her mother wanted a better life for the baby… yet why with this arrogant man next to her?

"But, why him?" asked Yumiko, pointing at Mizuho, quickly combing his hair into spiky blades, "He must be… at least two years older than me!"

"He is… but he can provide… his father runs twelve restaurants in Tokyo…and we love each other…"

Mizuho stopped grooming himself and smiled at the pregnant woman on the Tatami mat.

"How did you meet? How did you get in here without my father knowing?" asked Yumiko, frowning.

"We met… what was it Reiko? A year ago? I was dodging my father because I had to be back at home after a party by ten… It was half past three, and I saw your mother in the kitchen, and she invited me in. Your dad was watching TV or something…" said Mizuho, now grinning, looking back on nostalgia, "I always come here at twelve o' clock, because that's when I know your father's either out or asleep on that moth eaten couch."

Suddenly, the door creaked open and closed downstairs and the three realised that Yumiko's father was home. Her mother grabbed her suddenly, pulling her face close to Yumiko's, the stench of alcohol absolutely wanting Yumiko to pass out herself, "Listen to me, and listen good, we don't have much time… you do not tell your father anything! You weren't in her, in fact, you are _never_ in here and you act completely normal!"

"Of course!" breathed Yumiko, tension rising, as her father's footsteps were heard coming up the stairs, "I'd never tell!"

"Good! Another thing, on Friday, two nights from today, Mizuho shall come through to my room and pick me up… I shall never come back… we will leave together for Okinawa… I shall have my baby there…"

"_Yumiko!__"_

"Friday?" gasped Yumiko, then remembered the party.

"keep him drunk that night, it won't be _too_ hard!" whispered her mother, a bead of sweat dripping from her face.

"But he will come in one day and see you aren't here!"

"Yumiko," sighed her Reiko, "when does he ever look in?"

"_Yumiko!__"___screamed her father, and Yumiko quickly got up and left the room, shutting the sliding door behind her, just as her father came into the corridor.

"Where the _fuck _were you?"

"I was… in my room…"

"Go to the shops, and tell Mako that he has my sake'… and tell him I want it now…"

"Y- yes father…" stuttered Yumiko, reluctant at first to leave her position near her mother's room, but had too anyway.


	5. Chapter 5

_**CHAPTER 5: 05**_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__So, how__'__s life at school?__"_

_YODA440: __"__Ok__"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__You sound__…__ happy __J__"___

_YODA440: __"__Sick.__"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__Me too, sick from that horrible clip I got on my phone, did you get one 2?__"_

_YODA440: __"__Didn__'__t need 1__"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__What do you mean? U didn__'__t need 1!__"_

_YODA440: __"__Cos__…"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__Cos why? U normally full of life!! Wat the hell is up with u??__"_

_YODA440: __"__Hungry. Just hungry.__"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__So eat, and cum back on l8r!__"_

_YODA440: __"__Already__"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__Um__…__ I gotta go__…"_

_YODA440: __"__Yum.__"_

_YODA440 HAS LOGGED OFF_

"_Did you see Kate this morning?__"_

"_By the way, our school__…"_

"_Talk about being late!__"_

"_Seriously! Where is he?__"_

_Dylan tried to sink into her Algebra book inside Study Hall, but all she could hear was excited whisper coming from every other person in Study Hall._

"_Hey! Dylan!__"_

_Dylan didn__'__t need to look up to realize that it was Shawn calling her. She turned around, gazing into his flustered face, __"__What__'__s up?__"_

"_You__…____"__ he stared at her in disbelief, __"__you mean you don__'__t know?__"_

_Dylan frowned, __"__About?__"_

"_Follow me.__"_

_The two walked down one of the hallways at school, as a light drizzle started to splat itself against the windows. Suddenly, Shawn stopped, __"__You see?__"_

_Dylan smiled, __"__What?__"_

"_How many other students do you see here?__"_

_Dylan sighed and looked around. Though there were quite a few, there were usually way more students in the hallways at this time of the day, __"__Where is everyone?__"_

"_I don__'__t know. I checked the class registers today, I am a journalist of the school paper after all, and over twenty students are absent.__"_

_Dylan clicked her tongue, __"__It__'__s not that bad.__"_

"_Not if we went to some public school where there are, like, one hundred students per grade! This is a private school- there are only thirty kid__'__s per grade!__"_

"_So then it__'__s three hundred and forty students here today, what are you getting at Shawn?__"_

_Shawn moved closer towards Dylan, __"__A couple of days after the whole thing with Michelle and the video clips and messages, little by little, more students have not been turning up at school- and-__"_

"_Before you say it Shawn, I know,__"__ Dylan said and walked away. It was strange, ever since that whole strange macabre day, at least forty people a day in the city it had been counted, had been disappearing. The hospital which Michelle had been sent to, all the patients had disappeared the day Michelle was sent there, yet Michelle had not gone anywhere. It was creepy, strange and definitely abnormal, but Dylan didn__'__t want to know anything more about it. To be quite honest, the whole Apocalyptic Idea really bored her._

_Electra briskly walked up the driveway of her aunt__'__s beautiful household and knocked on the door. After waiting for a couple of minutes, Freda, Michelle__'__s mother, opened the door, looking absolutely stressed and bags hung under her eyes._

"_Have you come here for Michelle__'__s homework?__"__ she asked Electra as they sat in the living room._

"_Yes, it__'__s always good to drop things off, so that when she gets back, she__'__ll have all the homework she needs to refresh her brain!__"_

_Freda didn__'__t look as happy as Electra did, __"__That__'__s if Michelle comes back__…__"_

"_Aunt Freda__…"__ Electra sighed, smiling weakly. Michelle had been moved to a hospital overseas, which specialized in cases such as hers._

"_I__'__m sorry to break this up, but some friends and I are going to watch a musical tonight__…"_

_Electra got up and smiled, __"__Say no more, I__'__ll just put the homework in her room as usual.__"_

_As Electra turned to walk up the tall flight of stairs, Freda called her. Electra turned around._

"_Thank you,__"__ said Freda, and smiled. Electra smiled back._

_Michelle__'__s room was left as it was the fateful day she had left for school. Neat as always, Electra always aspired to be as neat as Michelle, and almost always succeeded. The room though, felt strange, as Electra walked inside and stopped to look around._

_Posters of James Franco hung from the walls- she absolutely adored him. Electra smiled as she walked over to Michelle__'__s desk, but the smile disappeared when she saw the Apple Laptop on the desk._

_The two seemed to glare at each other, as Electra put down the homework, remembering the night she received the strange call, and Dimitri those strange messages- from this computer. Yet suddenly, something it Electra in the stomach like she had been punched- there was no internet cable._

_Electra started to back away, frowning in fear, trying to think rationally and not jump to conclusions._

"_Aunt-__"__ her voice cracked, she cleared her throat, __"__Aunt Freda?__"_

"_Yes?__"__ she called from the bottom of the house._

_Electra hesitated, __"__Um__…__ where is Michelle__'__s internet cable?__"_

"_That thing?__"__ laughed Freda, __"__That thing snapped when she tripped over it going to your place to watch that __'__Mouth__'__ movie.__"_

_A strange ringing overcame Electra, as she walked back from the laptop slowly, as if it was now her new phobia- and it was._

_Slowly walking towards the door, something caught her eye- a brown book. Suddenly, Electra felt the sudden urge to snatch it, and she did. Putting it inside her blazer pocket, not really knowing the reason why, she walked quickly out of Michelle__'__s room, and slowly closed the door shut._

_Electra closed her eyes and tried to comprehend what she had just acknowledged. It didn__'__t make sense at all. Michelle snapped that cord- before her coma. How? And what was with the brown book?_

_Electra opened her eyes and pulled out the brown book and began paging through it. Simple girly sketches and scribbles and poetry met her eye, and seeing no point in looking at it further, she closed the book, only to come face to face with the most horrible creature she had ever seen crouching at her feet- and passed out._

_Electra woke up screaming._

_The shocked and weary faces that__'__s surrounded her leapt back in shock, one shrieked in surprise as Electra tried to decipher where she was. _

_White walls, white door, white sheets, white pajamas__…_

"_Where am I?__"__ she breathed, out of breathe suddenly and looking up to see the face of Shawn her friend and Kenlynn Patel, an Indian girl Electra absolutely hated._

_This hatred brewed over a simple misunderstanding, and the two couldn__'__t stand each other, even to this day._

_It was Shawn who spoke first, __"__Hospital__…__ you__'__ve been out for three days__…"_

"_A coma? When?__"__ asked Electra, breathing heavily. She couldn__'__t remember anything that lead up to that moment at all, the last thing she could remember was collecting homework for Michelle at school._

_Kenlynn sighed, __"__Well, three days ago, are you deaf too?__"_

_Electra glared at the Indian girl with disgust, __"__Fuck you.__"_

_Shawn glanced at Kenlynn, who looked like she hadn__'__t taken well to that comment, __"__Kenlynn, maybe you should just wait outside__…"_

"_No,__"__ she said giving him a determined look and moaned, __"__You promised me a story Shawn.__"_

_Electra was furious, __"__A story? Is that why you are here?__"_

"_No, not at all!__"__ protested Shawn, and held Electra__'__s hand, __"__it__'__s just, so far you have been the only one to wake up out of this wave of disappearances__…"_

"_We don__'__t know if it__'__s related__…"_

"_Shut up Kenlynn,__"__ Electra said shortly, barely glancing at Kenlynn, __"__I don__'__t remember a thing__…__ but I do know it__'__s got nothing to do with it. Now go.__"_

"_But Electra__…"__ stared Shawn, but was interrupted immediately._

"_Forget it. Go. Now,__"__ she said, and with that rolled over and closed her eyes, and only opened them after she heard Shawn and Kenlynn mumble something to each other and leave._

"_Fucking journalists!__"__ whispered Electra to herself, only to spot a brown book on the bedside table._

_Covered with fatigue, and despite a rather large headache, Electra sat up in the bed and took hold of the book and placed it in her lap, and began to open the pages in it._

_It was Michelle__'__s writing alright, but why did __she_ have it? The brown book seemed to be some type of journal/ sketch book which Michelle had obviously written in, so Electra, being as curious as she was, decided to read a few pages.

"Dear diary… how cute Michelle," smiled Electra softly.

"_It__'__s official, I__'__m part of an item! Ross asked me out yesterday, and so even though he wanted to see me tonight, I can__'__t __L__ I__'__m going to watch a film at E and Damien__'__s house- I hope Dimitri will be there- he__'__s so hot! __J__ And I just hope Damien has gotten over himself! It was just a silly phone prank that Marcelle and I pulled! What is the big deal?!__"_

" _The movie was horrid, Ross told me it was sick, but I had no idea__…__ I__'__m at his house now, I had to leave early because he phone and told me he needed to see me urgently__…__ Maybe it__'__s about the you- know- what? I hope not, It was horrible__…__ even Mouth didn__'__t live up to it__…__ could it be real? Could things like that be done? And besides, if anything does happen__…__ has happened, then it serves him write for doing all that weird stuff__"_

"_Diary, I don__'__t know how much time I have left, so I__'__ll try and be quick__…__ It is about that__…__ thing__…__ something terrible has happened__…__ Ross told me he couldn__'__t control it__…__ that it will come for me__…__ but I have it__…__ I have it and as long as I have it, that cannot get me__…"_

"_Ross isn__'__t picking up the phone, he is usually asleep at three, it__'__s now two__…__ I constantly hear that horrid dripping noise- it__'__s them I know it! They are outside__…__ inside closet now__…__ I need help__…__ will this last?__"_

"_Got me off guard tired sickkkk they are everywhere where is if I can__'__t find it no one can I have the keyy I__'__ve killed the world__…__ Have to tell them__…"_

There was nothing else in the brown book after that final entry. Electra stared at the pages, shocked. I didn't make any sense at all- yes, Michelle was paranoid but that was the only thing reasonably obvious. It was the only ting about the entries that had made sense. She was paranoid, scared that someone was after her, scared that Ross was dead because he didn't pick up his phone. And then there was something Michelle spoke of that she had, something she had been given, probably by Ross, to protect her from something- the thing that was coming after her.

And then the noises Michelle spoke of… the dripping, didn't Dimitri think he heard the same noises in the hospital? Electra began to tremble… and began to remember something horribly wrong.

She felt sick suddenly, as she memories she had probably chosen subconsciously to forget flooded her mind.

Electra had taken the diary from Michelle's room, and began to look through it, and, when she closed the book, saw that Michelle _herself_ was crouched at Electra's feet.

"Yumiko, what is the answer to number twelve?"

Yumiko quickly looked up at the board and hesitated, "um… 48 over 7?"

The teacher smiled in agreement, "correct…"

Yumiko gave a sigh of relief as she laid back in her seat. In doing that sum, it put her mind of the problems she faced everyday at home, and made her concentrate on one big problem that was on the board.

If only her problems were solved that quickly.

"Psst…" whispered Chiaki, motioning at Yumiko to look at her, "have you thought about it yet?"

Yumiko frowned, "I don't know… it's too risky…"

Chiaki scoffed, "it's just a party damn it!"

"But my father…" said Yumiko, then thought for a minute before adding, "he needs me…"

Chiaki rolled her eyes, "he needs rehab! Look, this is Shimizu Okazaki's party we're talking about here! He has the best parties in Japan! Look, it might be a bit strange asking this, but why not sleep over at my house that night then?"

Yumiko shook her head quickly, "no! He wouldn't ever allow it!"

"Look," convinced Chiaki with a wan smile, "what's the worst he could do? Murder you?"


	6. Chapter 6

_**CHAPTER 6: 06**_

_Seven months had passed since the beginning__…_

_It had taken over a decade for __It_ to join the world of the living again, ten years to be exact, and _It_ was aggravated. But _It_ knew something- someone would be stupid enough to unleash it again- one way or another.

But the way _It_ actually came through was impressive in itself. 

Computers.

The things many relied on for information allowed _It_ to flood itself into the world of the living once more, and infected so many already. And the more _It_ ate- the more _It _grew, the more _It_ grew- the more _It _began to take over. Thousand by thousand a day… that's all it took.

Yet, a thousand a day was not enough. _It_ needed more in order for _It_ to be powerful again… but there were other ways to get to the Humans. If not computers, then cell phones. If not cell phones, then television.

_It_ will consume and fear would once again be _It_. Sooner or later, though, _It_ realised it would be hungry again… but there were other methods of feeding…

"How are you feeling?" Dimitri asked as Electra walked into the house and sat down on the nearest chair in the kitchen. 

She was pale, depressed and on the verge of tears ever since the moment she had read Michelle's diary, and her mood hadn't changed. 

"How do you _think_ I feel?" she asked though gritted teeth, not at all meaning to sound harsh, but Dimitri seemed to take offence and walked into the TV Room.

"What do you have there?" asked Damien as he came in with Electra's bags of assorted toiletries and looked down at what she was clutching in her hand.

Electra slowly looked down the diary in her hand- she too hadn't been able to leave the diary alone, it contained to many unanswered assumptions and statements that Electra needed to know.

"This?" she said, tiredly, "It's Michelle's diary… I found it…"She explained the whole story to Damien, then again to Dimitri when he walked into the kitchen for lunch. Both were left open-mouthed and eyed Electra as if she was crazy, so Electra showed them the diary.

"I don't… believe this…" stammered Damien in disbelief, flipping through he pages of the diary frantically, "I mean… maybe she was crazy?"

"No… it wasn't like her," said Dimitri silently as he took the diary from Damien's trembling hands.

"What are we going to do?" Damien asked, shaking his head and rubbing his cheek with his hand as if he had been beaten on the cheek.

"What is there to do?" asked Electra, "We can't tell the police… we definitely cannot tell anyone… our best bet would be to find this Ross guy…"

"Ross, Ross Dunlip at our school?" asked Dimitri, looking up from the diary, "He's Phrog or something in the school chat room.

"Hmm I don't exactly know who you are talking about…" hesitated Damien suddenly. The name certainly didn't ring a bell.

"Ross Dunlip…" said Electra, thinking out loud.

"Guys! Come on! Ross?" Dimitri glared at them, "our grade? He's Computer Committee Chairperson and he's practically in the Computer lab all the time…"

"And you wonder why we of all people don't know this nerd," said Damien, sighing to himself and sitting down on the marble floor.

"So we find him and ask him some questions…" said Electra, taking a deep breath before adding, "and ask him what the hell is going on."

"This entry over here," said Dimitri, pointing at a page in the diary and quoted, "'Ross isn't picking up the phone…' Surely he's… gone too?"

"We'll have to try, it's all we have…" said Electra, getting up and going to the door, a shiver running down her spine.

"What? Like now?" asked Damien frowning, "you have to rest…"

"Forgive me if I'm wrong," said Electra sternly, "but what is more important right now?"

After looking into the school records in absolute secret, the trio found out Ross Dunlip, was actually a boarder in a townhouse complex- the same as the student reporter Kenlynn.

Eventually finding their way there, the three rang the doorbell three times, and got no answer. 

"We've been here for twenty minutes!" exclaimed Dimitri, buzzing the doorbell frantically, and still no-one picked up.

"I know someone in this townhouse complex…" hesitated Electra, then gathered up her energy and rang the doorbell.

There was a crackling almost instantly, and a shrill mechanical voice answered from the intercom, _"__What do you want?__"_

"I remember everything…" Electra said, a complete lie, "And I have extremely exciting news for you…"

"_What ever, I don__'__t want it, piss off__…"_

Electra lost it then, "Listen bitch! Either you open up right now or I'll break you fucking jaw tomorrow!"

She breathed in and out heavily, too worried about this Ross person to care about Kenlynn's feelings.

There was a pause and suddenly the gate opened, and Kenlynn walked out of her house, flustered, sweat dripping down her festering mono-brow.

She glared at the three as they walked into the townhouse complex, and almost immediately walked past her, but Kenlynn stood in the way, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Electra looked at her blankly, "Well, you know the saying Kenlynn, you pull the bull by the horns? In your case, it's the dog."

"Fuck you!"

"Guys! Please!" yelled Damien, staring at the quarrelling two, "What the hell is wrong with you two?"

"Please, it's what is wrong with her," snapped Kenlynn, with a faint lisp in her accent.

"Whatever, I don't have time for this," said Electra walking away, "Don't you have a thirty year old to fuck Kenlynn?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" shouted Kenlynn. Normally her voice didn't reach that level, but now it did.

Electra turned around, an eyebrow lifted, "Oh, sorry, I meant your father."

"Get out!" shrieked Kenlynn, but Electra walked off, followed slowly by the other two, leaving Kenlynn, enraged in the middle of the townhouse complex road.

Yumiko sat shivering in her bedroom, from both the cold of Japan's winter nights, and of nervousness. This would be the first time Yumiko would be doing such a thing, and was too scared to think of the consequences if she was caught. Sneaking out of her house and coming back in the dead of the night (Yumiko managed to convince Chiaki that there was no way she could have a sleep over) was not what she desired to do, especially if her father found out.

Once, when Yumiko was three, she and her then-well mother and father took a walk around the block of houses in Yumiko's street. It was warm, and birds sang in the trees. There was one baby bird though, which ate at the grass in their lawn when they returned. Yumiko loved birds at the time, and this bird was so cute and adorable, with brown felt feathers and a small beak and large black button eyes. 

All Yumiko seemed to remember was calling, "Birdie!" before her father walked over to it and stood on it. There was a quiet crunch as the bird's skeletal structure seemed to have given in under the large man's foot. 

Of course, Yumiko burst into tears, as her father scraped the mess off his shoe and told her to shut up.

Maybe it was her father's 'dementia' which led her mother to drinking and sickness. How her mother ever managed to allow him to make her pregnant with another baby, Yumiko would never now, now would she ever want to know. The only noise from outside the room was the moans of her mother.

What seemed like fifteen minutes, the three eventually made it to number 23, Ross Dunlip's townhouse.

The little garden looked unattended, and the door seemed to have cracks down the middle.

"Quite a shabby place," said Electra quietly to herself.

But Dimitri had another subject they wanted to talk about, "what was that?"

"I know, it doesn't look like a girl, but it really was Kenlynn," reassured Electra, mocking Dimitri.

"We're serious," said Damien solemnly.

Electra clicked her tongue, "can't this wait?"

"No."

She sighed slowly and began to tell them the story, "A few months ago, there was a rumour that I was spreading a rumour about a few girls. Of course, I didn't, and explained to the girls that I hadn't said anything. They believed me, but that cow didn't. I apologized but nothing happened, and she was still mean to me. Remember the movie I was in, she mocked me for that, and when it only made television, I heard her say, '_It didn__'__t make the movies __'__cos she was in it_'… I've hated her ever since, and I know the feeling is mutual."

Damien and Dimitri stared at Electra for a few seconds, finally understanding what Electra was bottling up all this time. Finally, without a word, the three moved to the door.

As Electra was about to knock, a faint murmur could be heard from the inside the house. 

"What was that?" Dimitri asked, and put his ear against the window, hoping to hear more. After a few painful seconds, Dimitri frowned and said, "It sounds like…'she's hear for me'…"

Suddenly, a hand smacked against the glass window from inside the house, and a shrill manly shriek penetrated the air. Dimitri jumped back in shock, and Damien began pounding on the door, shouting, "Ross! Hey! Ross, open up!"

More shrieking and what seemed like begging came from inside the house, and Damien began to throw his body against the door. Dimitri followed what his cousin was doing, and eventually, the two managed to get the door open.

"Ross!" Dimitri shouted as they ran into the small corridor which made up for a hallway, "Where are you?"

"_Please no__…__ why? I knew you__…__ you had the thing__…"_

"Ross?" called Electra, and ran into what looked like the TV Room, to where the shrieks and pleads seemed to be coming from.

"I'll go in here, you guys search somewhere else!"

Damien and Dimitri ran into other rooms, Damien upstairs, Dimitri searching the downstairs.

The room was like any other, though light seemed to escape this room. It was dark, and in a way cold. Small couches, an ordinary sized television, a laptop on the ground next to a quivering body of Ross Dunlip, who seemed to be pushing himself against the wall.

"What is it?" breathed Electra, moving towards him.

He yelped, "No! Stay back!"

As Electra was about to ask why, a sullen moan erupted from the other side of the room, and there standing in the corner, skin a colour of diseased green, eyes red and hair greasy and matted- was Michelle.

Electra gasped and fell to the floor in fright, as Michelle crept forward, as if Electra wasn't there.

Suddenly, Damien and Dimitri entered the room, looking flustered and red in the face. As Electra turned to face them, the light of the afternoon day entered the room, and the icy cold and dark were no more.

She quickly turned to face the paranoid Ross, but he too was no more. Neither was Michelle.

"What happened?" asked Damien, helping up the stunned Electra, who couldn't take her eyes off the pot of carpet where Michelle stood.

"Mi… She was there… and… he…"

"What do you mean?" asked Dimitri, grabbing hold of her shoulders, "who was here? Who?"

"She was… Mi… Mi…" and at that point, Electra gave into the loudest scream she ever allowed.


	7. Chapter 7

_**CHAPTER 7: 07**_

_BEUTIFULLL: __"__Have you heard that story?__"_

_JASMYN: __"__Yes, I have__…__ Electra apparently thought she saw Michelle in the room with that _

_Ross dude__…"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__Well__…__ was she?__"___

_JASMYN:__"__I don__'__t know__…__ but now Ross is gone, and so is the majority of my English Literature class__…__ where is everyone going?__"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__Classes are empty__…"_

_JASMYN: __"__Teachers aren__'__t even at school__…"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__I heard it__'__s the end of the world__…__ my pastor said so.__"_

_JASMYN: __"__It__'__s not! It can__'__t be__…__ what could be doing it?__"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__A disease?__"_

_JASMYN: __"__yoda440 said so 2... He ain__'__t on no more.__"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__Haven__'__t seen him school either!__"_

_JASMYN: __"__This ain__'__t right! Chatrooms r so busy this tym!__"_

_BEAUTIFULLL: __"__But it__'__s just us left__…"_

_LOTUS07: __"__I__'__m still here__…__ and I__'__m hungry__"_

_Kenlynn glared at the television as if it was the very cause of her problems. _

_Sighing, she pulled out her cell phone and started typing a text message to her boyfriend who stayed in a university campus twenty minutes away from where she lived. _

_What you doing l8r 2nyt?_

_She asked him the first thing that came to her head, anything to get her mind of the events that had happened that afternoon with Electra._

"_Fucking bitch__…"__ murmured Kenlynn, grinding her teeth. Electra thought she knew everything, and thought she was the absolute beauty of the school. Many people liked Electra, but Kenlynn had a reason to hate her. Even though the whole __'__rumour__'__ story was a complete misunderstanding, Kenlynn chose not to believe her, just so she had an excuse to hate Electra. And she knew the feeling was mutual on Electra__'__s side too._

_Suddenly, Kenlynn__'__s phone vibrated, and saw that she had received a multimedia message, from her boyfriend._

_Smiling to herself, Kenlynn opened the message, expecting something entertaining, but instead received the complete opposite. _

_Kenlynn frowned as she saw what seemed to be her own room in her house in the picture. A figure of a teenage boy, who resembled Kenlynn__'__s boyfriend, sat crouched in the corner of the room, his arms folded over his legs and his head laid on top of his folded arms. His combed hair shone in the late afternoon sun. _

_Kenlynn got up quickly. What the hell was he doing in her house? In her room? And who took the picture?_

_Taking a deep breath, Kenlynn slowly started walking towards the flight of stairs in her house and began to climb the stairs slowly, one by one._

_As she reached the last stair, and saw her room, the last door at the end of the small hall, her heart began to beat quicker, and noticed that her hands were shaking uncontrollably. A tear ran down her cheek, as she eventually what seemed like hours, reached her room door. As she touched the handle, she heard a sudden croak, something out of a digital dial tone or such. Whatever it was, it didn__'__t sound human._

_Kenlynn turned to the wall in which she thought she heard it coming from. There was silence, then another croak. And another. And soon the croaks seemed to fuse into a long croak, which became so loud that Kenlynn squealed in panic, turning her doorknob and running into her room, and locking the door._

_She couldn__'__t hear the croaks from outside, nor anything else for that manner, except her breathing._

_Just as she was about to walk towards the bedside table to put her phone down, it started to ring. Giving a surprised yelp, Kenlynn stared at her phone, trying to see who it was that was calling. _

_Mark Calling__…__ 0724456785_

_Kenlynn gasped and realised why she came to her room in the first place. Taking deep breaths, she pushed green button and put the phone to her ear and waited for a reply._

_There was silence, then on the other end, the croaking started again, followed by a strange word that sounded like, __'__kiosk__'__. Kenlynn screamed and through her phone down onto the floor, and spun around, gasping at what she saw._

_Mark was in the same strange position he was in the photo, only this time he was pointing to the one side of her wall. Slowly Kenlynn, crying from fright, and feeling the middle part of her school skirt go damp, looked towards where Mark was pointing, to a distorted figure in the corner of her room, a red eye staring straight at her._

_She felt a warm trickle of water flow down her arms suddenly, and looked down, only to notice that her arms had been cut open in long lines, and her blood pouring out of it. Kenlynn, as stupid as she had been before today, realised one thing as the figure of a girl slowly passed Mark and began to crawl towards her- what was going to happen to her would be the most painful experience of her life__…_

_Damien sat on the stairs that lead to the great doors of Holy Trinity, the once busy high school that had laughter and talk fill the halls, now only the moaning of wind._

_He looked down at his watch and groaned. _

_07:50am _

_By this time normally, the stairs and lawns were covered with students, running to find which teachers were absent, trying to find out the latest gossip, the list was endless. Now there was only Damien. Damien, Dimitri and another boy student who Damien saw running up towards the steps where he sat._

_The boy seemed to be in his first year of high school, an eighth grader, and he wore a hopeful, yet nervous smile on his face. He looked at Damien and said, __"__Have__…__ have you learnt for your literature cycle test today? All Mister Veld__'__s classes are getting it__…"_

_Damien frowned slightly as he looked up at the boy, __"__It__'__s today?__"_

"_Yes! I hope I do well!__"_

_The boy raced off and pushed the big doors open and ran into the seemingly empty school. Damien looked up at the sky and sighed sadly to himself. The sky was a dark grey, a cliché for doom. For the Apocalypse__…_

"_What you doing out here?__"__ asked an old voice from behind him, making Damien turn around._

"_Waiting for school to start__…"_

"_You of all people should know by now that there won__'__t be any school today__…"__ the old man, Mister Veld stared at Damien with a strange smile on his face._

"_But why?__"_

"_There are five teachers here today, not including me__…__ so far only ten students in the building, excluding you__…"__ Mister Veld sighed, __"__go home Damien__…"_

_Damien looked at the old man and got up from the stairs where he was sitting and frowned, __"__So we stop school, we stay at home, locking ourselves into our rooms like Electra__…__ it really is the Apocalypse after all__…"_

"_Come now__…"__ said Mister Veld, and walked off into the school._

_Damien looked at the old man, defeated and seemingly depressed and said, __"__There__'__s a boy who is really nervous about the lit test today__…"_

_Mister Veld stopped and turned around to Damien, smiling, __"__Well then, maybe just this last time__…"_

_As Damien watched the old man walk off into the shadows of the seemingly abandoned school, he couldn__'__t help but feel upset about how it had all ended. Dimitri walked towards him from behind a pillar, holding a cigarette and taking deep puffs, the smoke swirling around his fit body in the gloomy day._

"_Did you hear that?__"__ he asked Dimitri, who gave Damien a sympathetic smile as the two began to walk away._

"_Hear what?__"__ he asked, even though Damien knew for a fact that Dimitri had heard every word._

_As the two were walking down the pavement outside their school, in the distance, they heard shrieks of fear, and a rumble that__'__s sounded like two cars colliding with one another._

_The two paused, and stood there for a while, as if reflecting on what the world had become. Suddenly, there was a smashing of glass from what seemed like above them, and falling through the air like a lifeless doll, was Mister Veld._

_Damien screamed in panic as the teacher__'__s body smacked into the pavement, his head cracking open, displaying grey matter which any useless Biology student could identify. Dimitri dropped the cigarette and the two ran towards the teacher__'__s body, hearing the screams of the little boy from above._

_It was two minutes past three when Yumiko quietly walked into the dank dark house, and shut the door behind her. It was her first party ever, and she absolutely loved it. The music, the food, the boys- she never knew that so many people knew her, but everyone at the party seemed to know her, or just know of her._

_As she climbed the steps, she could hear a strange moaning coming from her mother__'__s room. It wasn__'__t a sound of pleasure that was for sure, Yumiko__'__s mother and father hadn__'__t had sex since Yumiko left for high school. This moaning sound like a gasp, a painful one at that._

_Suddenly, Yumiko began to shake as she expected the worst. She began to walk quickly up the steps towards the room. Was there something wrong with the baby? Was there something wrong with her mother? As Yumiko ran down the average size corridor, she heard the sounds now, much loader than what they were before. As she reached the door, she heard what appeared to be a ripping noise, and a squeal of an infant. _

_Was her mother giving birth to the baby?_

_Quickly, she opened the door and barged in on what made Yumiko scream in panic._

"_I have just been told that this is to be one of the last broadcasts that we shall make, as the majority of our filming crew have disappeared, just like everyone else on this planet__…__ What could be doing this you may ask? Is it God trying to make his final point? Is it extraterrestrial work? In just one month, 78 of the world__'__s population has been wiped out__…__ A large portion still remain in Australia and Madagascar though__…__ it has also been estimated that there is only 28 of the population in this country left__…__ we must just pray that if we are to disappear too__…__ may we do it quick__…"_

_Electra glared at the television screen in her room._

_It had been three days since she had left her room, or even bathed and changed clothes for that matter. _

_Just the other day, she witnessed through the closed blinds in her room, a large amount of the neighbourhood leaving to try and find a better place to live their lives__…__ what was left of it._

_Both Damien and her parents tried to get back from Paris to be with their children, but couldn__'__t, due to the lack of aircraft pilots and planes. They were left to stay in Paris for the remainder of this strange ordeal. But Electra didn__'__t really care, to say the least, Electra just didn__'__t open the door._

_A lot of their neighbours still lived in their houses, others moved into the one__'__s that their owners had left._

_A roaring sound in the air made Electra jump, and she realised that it was just an airplane in the sky. She yawned, this life was taking it__'__s toll over her. She heard the downstairs main door open and close and wondered if it was Damien and Dimitri home from school, or some of her neighbours. But she didn__'__t care- not anymore. She closed her eyes tightly shut and tried to think of something happy, but all she could get in her imagination was Michelle__'__s face__…__ the distorted white one she had seen in Ross__'__ townhouse._

_And then suddenly, she realised something._

_Opening her eyes quickly, she walked towards her drawer and began throwing papers out, until she found what she had been looking for._

_The brown book._

_Something Ross had said to Michelle that Electra had heard made her start to think. If she had remembered correctly, Ross told Michelle that she had the __'__thing__'__. Paging through the diary, Michelle also wrote about something that she had__…__ something that these __'__things__'__ couldn__'__t get her with that she had._

_Electra found the entry and began to read it over and over. But, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn__'__t make a sense of it._

_Damien and Dimitri, both physically drained walked slowly up the steps, past Electra__'__s room and into Dimitri__'__s room, trying hard not to break a silence that both of them didn__'__t want, but couldn__'__t help having._

_Damien felt something in his pocket buzz and slowly pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, looking on the screen to see who it was that was phoning. It was Dylan. Slowly, Damien pushed the answer button and put the phone to his ear. _

"_Damien?__"___

"_Hey Dylan__…"_

"_What__'__s wrong? Are you still at school, because I__'__m over there now in the library, but the librarian left an hour ago and hasn__'__t come back__…__ there was screaming from outside, I__'__m too scared to go and look__…"_

"_It was Veld, Dylan__…__he__'__s dead__…__ gave up__…"_

"_Oh God no!__"__ Damien heard muffled crying on the phone, __"__Why? Fuck this! I have to-__"_

_There was a deathly silence on the phone and Damien__'__s eyes bulged. _

"_Dylan__…"__ he whispered, closing his eyes tight and fearing the worst._

_There was a crackling on the line, a strange croaking noise, then a hellish scream, causing Damien to pull the phone away from his ear in panic._

"_Dimitri__…__ Dylan__'__s in the library, we have to go-__"___

_Something made him stop dead in the middle of the sentence as he felt a strange chill run down his spine._

_A strange dripping noise came from behind him, and going against every intention in his body, Damien turned around to face the deathly white face of Michelle._

"_Mi__…"__ was all Damien could stammer, his heartbeat racing. Suddenly, the phone in his hand began crackling again, and a strange sound came from it, like a voice of a girl- Michelle__'__s voice._

"_Kooskose__'____"_

_Silence, Michelle stepped closer._

"_Kooskose__'____"_

_Another step._

"_Kooskose__'____"_

_Michelle was right in front of Damien now. He couldn__'__t take his eyes of hers, as they stared right into his soul. _

_He heard Dimitri moan in panic, and wanted to run away, even jump out the window if he had to. But he couldn__'__t move a muscle. _

_He felt as if he was giving into something he didn__'__t want to do__…__ as Michelle__'__s mouth opened, displaying a dark emptiness from within her._

_Finally, after reading for minutes on end, Electra threw the diary to her side and moaned in anger. What had Michelle and Ross done to start all of this? What had she done?_

_She closed her eyes and tried to place herself in Michelle__'__s shoes, when it started. That noise which Dimitri heard, and the noise that Michelle had heard- the dripping._

_It saw her from where it was hiding__…__ victims like her could always be spotted easily__…__ all it took was a simple electronic item__…__ and that was It__'__s map__…__ and it was hungry. It waited, underneath the covers of the victim__'__s bed. Waited. _

_Electra looked around her shoulder, trying to see if the noise was coming from her bedroom, she got up and looked around. The more she looked, the more the dripping became noticeable, and irritating. Electra put her hands over her ears and squealed in frustration. She shut her eyes and tried hard to block out the noise, but it made no difference, the noise just got worse._

_It began to uncurl itself from inside the victim__'__s bed, and slowly slithered towards the end of the sheets. Closer and closer__…_

_The dripping became louder._

_It__'__s arm came out from underneath the covers and began to stretch to find it__'__s victim, stretching her arm to grab the victim__…__ she was so close now__…__ It could smell her fear__…_

_Electra let go of her ears and looked around, trying to find a way to stop the noise._

_Closer and closer__…__ It was so close now__…__ It__'__s bleeding finger nails could grab her at any moment._

_As Electra reached for a pillow from her desk chair, she noticed the brown book flip a few pages on it__'__s own accord, until it reached on page. Electra stared at the page, there nothing interesting about it. Shocked that the book had done that, Electra carefully picked up the book and stared at it__'__s page._

_Suddenly, It__'__s fingers bent back and It__'__s whole arm coiled back like a frightened child. It hissed as it shrunk back underneath the covers, further and further away__…___

_The dripping suddenly stopped. Electra whipped her head around, nervous that it had stopped so suddenly, yet happy that it had done so._

_Slowly Electra looked at the page again. There were a few notes and reminders on it, but all seemed to be crossed out._

_Except for one._

_Electra narrowed her eyes, trying to make out what it had said._

_Koji S Goryo Yurei F_

_To her, it could have been anything. But she knew it could be a clue. It had to be. Her strange urge to get the brown book in the first place, the turning of the pages- it had to mean something._

_Suddenly, from outside her room she heard Damien and Dimitri__'__s voices and judging by the strange depression in their voices, she knew they needed to hear what she had to say. _

_Running to the door, unlocking it and running down the flight of steps towards the direction in which she had heard their voices- Dimitri__'__s bedroom._

"_Guys!__"__ she shrieked, opening the door, only to gasp in horror at what she saw. _

_Damien was know where to be found, but what Dimitri was doing spoke for all. By the large mirror, Dimitri stared at Electra, eyes pale, skin even paler, and around his neck in a chokehold, was the arm of Michelle, and in the mirror, as if a reflection, Michelle stood there, arm around Dimitri__'__s neck, pulling him into, what seemed, the mirror. _

"_No!__"__ screamed Electra and raced forward, towards the mirror as Michelle started pulling Dimitri into it._

"_Electra!__"__ he screamed, holding onto the edges of the mirror, then, with one yank, let go, and vanished into the reflection of the mirror._

"_No!__"__ screamed Electra and ran into the mirror, smashing it to pieces. Electra fell onto the floor and burst into tears, shrieking out of control in disbelief. _


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8: 08

Yumiko staggered back, trembling, tears springing from her eyes, streaming down her face like petals of marble. Her trembling hands grasped her trembling mouth, as her legs gave in, and sank to the floor, stunned.

Her father stood in the middle of the room, standing over her mother's bleeding body which lay on a blood- soaked Tatami mat. In her father's hands looked like a sack of meat, which dripped red pearls of blood onto the wooden floor.

Her father's face was splattered with blood, and when he saw Yumiko pressed up against the wardrobe, he smiled at her insanely. His teeth seemed to also be covered with blood as well.

"Father…" she gasped, as she looked down at her mother's body again. There, in the centre of her stomach, was a large deep wound, and suddenly as if like a Tsunami, realisation came to Yumiko as she suddenly realized what the sack of meat really was in her father's hands.

Yumiko stared at her father in disbelief again, as he grinned and said, "Yumiko… it's a boy…"

The home telephone rang as Electra soon came to her senses. Her head snapped towards the door, and she got up quickly, trying to think straight. Sprinting down the stairs, she ran into the large kitchen, and grabbed the newly replaced phone from it's hook.

"Hello…?" she stammered, and heard a hoarse female voice on the other end.

"Electra!" it shrieked, her voice seemed to be choked up by tears, "please… you must come to me... It does things to me…"

Electra could feel the tears running down her face, "Who… who are you?"

"It's me! Kenlynn…"

Electra frowned as she wiped the tears from her swelled eyes and started to breathe heavily, "What do you want?"

"Help… it has peeled off my eyelids… she makes me watch as she kills… everyone else… she makes me… bleed…"

Suddenly, the phone went dead, and Electra stared at it, before slowly putting it on the hook. Almost instantly, the phone rang again, and Electra swiped it from the hook on the wall, "what is it you want from me, you cunt?!"

"E… Electra?" came a shivering voice on the other side of the phone, and realisation swooped over Electra, "It's… it's Dylan… I was talking to Damien, but I got cut off…"

"He's gone… so is Dimitri…" as if she couldn't hold it in anymore, she cried out, "Dylan where are you?"

"I'm at school… in the library… I'm the only one here… I heard some more screaming outside in the hallway, so I've barricaded the door with some bookcases…"

"I'm coming to get you!"

"Shout for me so that I know it's you when you get to the library… please hurry…"

Electra slammed the phone back on the hook, and ran over to the pantry where the car keys hung on a hook. Quickly, she made her way over to the locked house door, and pulled it open, suddenly stopping dead at the sight that she saw.

A thick, black blanket of clouds hung overhead, as if it was almost night-time. In the distance, a large fire gathered, as the screams of people could be heard from beyond her house.

Electra's hairs rose on the back of her neck, as she stood in the middle of her doorway stunned, a look of disbelief on her face.

A moan from behind her forced Electra to turn around, to look upon the figure of a girl that she thought she once knew.

The girl moaned again, her greasy thick black hair covering her face. Her pale hands reached out towards Electra, as the girl took a step forward.

"Michelle…" whispered Electra, as Michelle drew another step closer to Electra. More moans sounded form inside the house, as the silhouettes of more people seemed to come out of nowhere to appear behind Michelle.

"What… what are you all doing here?" shrieked Electra, backing away onto the front lawn of her house, "what do you want from me?"

Suddenly, a voice so hoarse and ghostly whispered itself into Electra's ear, "They want… your soul…"

Quickly, Electra turned around to come face-to-face with Mister Veld, the aging man's eyes as hollow and as dark as shadows.

Electra screamed and ran away from the on-coming figures, trying to resist their ghostly grasps. She could still feel their eyes gouge into the back of her neck.

Yumiko stared at her father in utter disbelief, as he threw the foetus of the little boy against the wooden wall of the small room. The little body seemed to stick to the wall for a second, then slowly sank to the dirty floor.

Yumiko screamed in sheer panic, as her father suddenly came towards her, hammer in one hand, a black bag in another.

Quickly, Yumiko got to her feet, and slowly tried to get out of the room, before she felt a sickening throb on her shoulder, and sank to the floor in a crumpled mess.

"You knew, you little cunt!" shrieked her father, raising the hammer again, smashing it against her kneecap. Pain shot through Yumiko's upper leg, and she squealed in panic.

The mayhem seemed to have cooled down a bit, as Electra made her exhausting way through the streets of the city, trying to remember exactly where her school was. Another tear slowly ran it's course down her cheek, as she tried to concentrate on finding Dylan in time.

"Electra! Hey! Electra!"

A familiar cry came from a short distance away from where Electra was, and Electra turned to see who it was.

"Shawn!"

The two dramatically raced towards each other, Electra falling into his arms. Though he reeked of sweat and soot, Electra found comfort in his arms.

"Electra… we know what is going on…"

Electra looked at him, frowning, "we?"

Shawn signalled for Electra to look behind him, and in the distance, about six silhouettes sat on the curb of the littered street. All six looked distraught and dirty.

"I was Chestnut Mall when it happened…" began Shawn, running a hand through his thickly gelled hair, "I was with Jasmin, we were buying food in bulk. That was when we both came to the realization of something. You see, both of us are quite geeky when it comes to all that PC shit. We put two-and-two together, and what we found out made perfect sense to why this is going down! Ghosts!"Electra shook her head meekly, "oh please, God, don't start!"

"Listen! I'm being serious! These figures, these people… they're all ghosts! Remember the SMS text messages a few months back?"

"Yes."

"It kinda started then. About 300 000 people got messages that day… from where, we didn't know… but we do know now. People who we were all close to before they passed on sent us those messages."

"If that's even true, how come only 300 000 people received the messages, and not more?"

"I was getting to that. Frequency. It's how we get our messages on our cell-phones and e-mail on our computers. Frequency is different in different parts of the world. In rural areas like farmlands, the frequency or reception is low, whereas in cities, it is very high. High enough to get in contact with ghosts."

"It's unbelievable."

"Believe it. It's happening even as we speak."

"So how come so many people are disappearing and dying or going into comas? How come those ghosts are walking around now? Why is Michelle around when she should be somewhere in a hospital?"

"Because it was her boyfriend and her that got them all through…"

"What?"

Shawn sighed and a loud moan erupted from the skies above. He turned around quickly and began to look for the source from which it came from.

"We don't have too much time!" shouted one of the silhouettes, a female.

"Shut up! I'm almost finished!" screamed Shawn, then turned back to Electra, "look, I have to be quick, so don't say anything and believe everything. Got me?"

Electra hesitated, "yes…"

"Good. A couple of months back, your cousin and her boyfriend named Ross Dunlip managed to hack into a database of a cell-phone network. Ross, as you probably know was a Computer Techie from Westcliff university… anyway, so they hack into this network, but at the same time, it is possible to say that something else had hacked in… something of the supernatural… As it got into contact with Ross and Michelle, it was able to get out of that network and come into our world… a world outside the internet. This must've created a disturbance… a gate must've opened, allowing more of it's kind to seep through as well, causing the gate to widen and widen until it would be impossible to close…"

Electra whimpered, "and? Has it?"

Shawn sighed irritably, "I'm not sure… there's only one way to find out, and that is to get to the computer where it all started- the computer which allowed the gate to be opened for the first time…"

"Ross's computer!" shouted Electra.

"No… I've tried it already," sighed Shawn.

"What do you mean? That place has been closed off for a while due to that whole thing…"

"I have contacts, remember Electra?" smiled Shawn, but the smile soon faded when another moan ripped through the air, "It's not his computer, and there's no use trying to find it now… it's impossible!"

Shawn began to back away towards the group of anxious silhouettes. Electra looked nervously around her as a strange wind picked up, "where are you going?" she shrieked.

"I can't be here!" Shawn yelled, "we can't be here! We don't belong here anymore! This place belongs to them now!"

"So where do we 'belong' then?" Electra cried out, as more gusts of wind blew past.

"As far rural as you can get! And hurry!" shrieked Shawn and fled out of site with the group, leaving Electra alone- gangly, edgy and frightened.

Michelle and Ross had betrayed them. No. Not only them. The world. Their curiosity had led to the very abomination of humanity- and the rise of the spectres that roamed what was once an illustrious city and life-giving earth.

Electra crouched on the ground and put her head in her hands.

Her friends were gone. Her family was gone. She was left alone. In a city pulsating with hate.


End file.
